Once again the MSM is stirring up an imaginary rift in the GOP by articles like, "Republican Woman Derails Abortion Ban"; and Proof of the GOP War on Women. Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina withdrew her support for a bill banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy but she did so because the bill as written was a bad bill. She, like most Republicans in the House, is pro-life and if there is any rift, it's due to the language in the bill. Ellmers is correct in warning that bills like the one she objected to will fuel the Democrat charge of the GOP war on women.

One of the biggest flaws in the pro-life movement is its inability to understand how the non religious electorate views the abortion issue. This faction doesn't care a whit about the unborn and no amount of photos of dismembered fetuses will persuade them from their self-centered support of the abortion industry.

That may seem like a harsh assessment of the pro-choice advocates but I have been an active pro-life supporter for nearly 40 years and consequently a target for rabid abortion supporters. They wear t-shirts applauding their abortions; they post videos of their procedures; they recruit celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg to wave coat hangers at marches. Still we see the pro life movement continue to reveal the real horror that is inflicted on our unborn which politicians like Nancy Pelosi, the faux Catholic, refuse to even call human. They do not care.

I have suggested over and over that the focus to defeat the heinous sin of abortion should not be on the fetus but on the mother. Abortion is the real war on women but that truth is pushed into the background because most of the agenda for the pro-life campaigns is set by male clergy. I believe that groups like Priests For life and other religious affiliations have every right to promote the end of abortion but it would be prudent to recognize that they are dealing with an increasingly amoral and hedonistic society with little respect for the unborn.

I will never forget walking in downtown Manhattan with my newborn son strapped in a sling carrier when a young woman crossed the street and came to look at the babe in arms. She oohed and ahhed at him and then blurted out, "I just had an abortion." My husband and I didn't know how to respond to her obvious pain before she abruptly walked away. Although the abortion industry tries to associate a fetus with an ordinary body part that has been removed it is not. Nearly every woman who has had an abortion remembers its date and calculates the age of her child had she allowed it to live. Many pro-lifers have experienced first hand the pain of abortion.

The woman who posted her abortion on YouTube as a necessary and beneficial choice nonetheless slipped and called the fetus her baby. Emily Letts, an abortion counselor, said she made the video to show it was not a scary procedure and said, 'I feel in awe of the fact that I can make a baby. I can make a life; I just want to tell my story." Yep, she made a baby and felt it was not a big thing to kill it. But I somehow do not think she will always be as nonchalant if she discovers later on that the child she discarded was her only chance at parenthood.

One also wonders what Amy Richard's son will think when he learns that his sibling twins were culled by his mother so that she didn't have to move to Staten Island with triplets. Since his mother crowed about it in the New York Times Magazine article, "When One Is Enough", it's highly likely the issue will be brought up sometime in the future.

As much as abortion advocates try to reduce abortion to a civil right, the dangerous facts about the procedures are carefully ignored and the negative impact on women deliberately hidden. There are some websites that relate those negative experiences and offers healing. Project Rachel is one of the most widely accessed. Rachel's Vineyard offers post abortion retreats for women suffering from psychological effects of the loss of their child. Depression, eating disorders and suicide are just a few of the effects. It is also possible that there may be a connection between abortion and breast cancer. Once a woman becomes pregnant, the body generates rapid cell growth in breast tissue to prepare for milk production. Abortions may halt the pregnancy but not stop the cell growth. This theory is still being debated but the possibility is quite plausible.

It would be better for the respect life movement to focus on educating women on the real facts about this billion dollar industry that receives millions in taxpayer funds. The House has passed a bill to defund Planned Parenthood but President Obama will probably veto it since he is not a fan of the unborn. He voted against the Born Alive bill four times while a State Senator in Illinois.

Educating minorities about the history of Planned Parenthood is another important point to add to the abortion debate. While the nation is being inundated with protesters shouting that "Black Lives Matter" the irony is that they are most valued by abortion providers. That's because the majority of abortions today are done to Black and Hispanic women.

Paul Kengor wrote a column in American Spectator about Margaret Sanger, the 'sainted' founder of Planned Parenthood, and her visit to a KKK gathering in N.J. So much of Sanger's past eugenics history has been cloaked over by PP to make sure they get funding from the government under the pretense of protecting women's reproductive rights. The truth about her is just plain ugly. Kengor writes, "Progressives today dare not raise the alarming specter of Sanger's "Negro Project," or her correspondence with Dr. Clarence Gamble, one of her Negro Project collaborators. In a remarkable December 10, 1939 letter today held in the Sanger archives at Smith College (I have a photocopy), Sanger urged Gamble: "We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population."

It is time for the GOP to realize that it doesn't need to sacrifice its principles to get elected but it definitely does need to play smarter.